Kenna Grainne
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Kenna's picture is an extreme photo manipulation and painting by her player. Kenna is as breathtaking as any Fae of Royal blood. | |
| Kenna Grainne | |
| Player: "Kam" | |
| Origin: | Magic |
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| Archetype: |  
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| Security Level: | 40s because her player prefers role play. |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Unknown to all but her husband, her magical true name is Sgail - Scottish Gaelic for "Shadow" |
| Known Aliases: | none |
| Species: | Fomoire not Fomor, not Formori |
| Age: | Human age 24, previous life memory? hard to say |
| Height: | 6'1" |
| Weight: | unknown but seems very fine boned and lanky, but with appropriate curves for a "goddess" |
| Eye Color: | platinum gray, illuminated from within |
| Hair Color: | deepest wine/black. |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | This ancient fae spirit was born into a human body in the Rogue Islands before the Arachnos takeover and is a citizen of the USA, sort of. She however has created her own lands outside the realm of human existence where she rules as queen. The Lands of the Wild Court, are usually referred to as "The Estate" which is growing in size every few months. |
| Occupation: | Magic Jewelry maker, Magical Antiquities Dealer, sometime Dream Interpreter. |
| Place of Birth: | Cap Au Diable |
| Base of Operations: | "The Estate" nominally connected to Paragon, or "The Freehold" accessible from St. Martial |
| Marital Status: | Open Marriage with Solustrae |
| Known Relatives: | Solustrae. (Her single mother left her when she was 15, and she had no siblings.) |
| Known Powers | |
| Corruptor played in game as a gray and wine colorized Dark Blast and Kinetics set. Controller has similar kinetics set colored the same, but the fire effects are black/dark wine. They are roleplayed as animated, (mostly) obedient, sentient shadows | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Shadow manipulation, inspiration, blessings and curses, magical "construction" | |
| Equipment | |
| A small handbag made of shadow material, manipulable shadow clothing. Amulets to give to fae she meets (for the channel) A small handbag made of shadow material, manipulable shadow clothing. Amulets connect through the the ic channel "gonahe." | |
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Contents |
Fae Politics
Kenna Grainne began as a fae political activist offering leadership to those fae wishing to abstain from the war between summer and winter. She started by taking a role as "queen", a political term that flouts the conventions of the Tuatha De Dannan who pass on rulership via very carefully screened bloodlines. She represents everything the Tuatha leadership does not like: she's changeling and she's Fomoire (not Fomor, not Formori.) For a while she was careful not to intimate that she was an actual queen, but these days she has a large following and is widely recognized as a Queen and liberator of fae who wish to be neutral in the seasonal war. Due to aggressive negotiations at the stone table during summer solstice of 2011, she was able to force both Tatiana and Mab to sign an agreement to allow fae to choose to be neutral and not pressed into service in their war.
Kenna has never tried to subject anyone without their consent. She has never asked for an oath of fealty, though she has earned the respect of those she protects and many have chosen to give her that oath. Her foundational belief is that a leader should be servant to her people whenever possible.
She feels the Dreaming is falling into fits of despair and banality, and by extension larger dream concepts like the "American Dream" are dying. And she believes that human dreams of "my team vs. your team", "my country vs. your country", and "my religion vs. your religion" are fueling the atmosphere in the Faery lands, and by extension the war of Summer and Winter Courts. Likewise, she believes that the endless war between Summer and Winter is affecting the dreams of humans to stay locked in their 2 sided patterns mentioned above. The only way out of these patterns, she contends, is to abstain from the trappings of the fae war and nurture dreams of justice, peace and evolution in humans, and to create such a court for the fae.
Fairy Abilities
Kenna has the same power to enchant, bless, and curse, as do many royal fae in fairytales. Like the story of Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, the fae enchantments she uses are intended to teach.
Beauty and the Beast: the guy with the bad temper and the poor hospitality gets turned into a beast until he learns hospitality to a lesser and how to love and be loved.
Cinderella: the girl with the abused self esteem learns to look and act like royalty to be noticed by someone important and move up in society over those who held her down.
Evolution Goddess - Muse - Inspiration
Kenna gains power by inspiring people to evolve. While she may have espoused the winter court's code code in the past, the only part of it she now holds to is that "change is good."
Kenna gains most of her glamor (a residual outcome derived from creativity, not unlike smoke is a residual of fire) from inspiring people to evolve in some way. That is why her fae spirit was born to a human in the Rogue Islands, a place where the fates knew that soon the Darwinian ruler-ship of Arachnos would ascend.
Fairy Godmother
Pictured (left) in Pocket D. From left to right Solustrae (husband), Kenna and Shiverswitch (godson).
Though Kenna can act as a one time "fairy godmother," she tends to prefer to take a longer term role with those whom she deems too important to leave unprotected. If she has taken to calling someone her godson or goddaughter, then it is for her, a lifetime commitment.
(Kenna is available for long or short term fairy godmother story lines. Feel free to contact her in game.)
Godchildren
Shiverswitch - Shiver is a former male runway model with poise and grace. He carries himself with a maturity beyond his years. Kenna chose him because he was uncertain of himself despite his charm and obvious intelligence. She saw in him an enormous capacity for glamor. It turns out that his mother is a homicidal Winter fae who massacred his adoptive parents. Kenna is now doing all she can to help him sort through this new information, and hopes to help him understand is role as a changeling.
Zack Grimoire - Zack oversees the worlds largest (human) magic lending library in the world, which open to the public. With that are incredible responsibilities and political pressures that could make his life more complicated than necessary. Kenna has chosen to commit herself to his well being in support of his important role to the (human) magic world. She feels that Zack and she have a great deal in common, not only in terms of life goals, but personality. Unfortunately her husband, Solustrae, has come close to asking her to cut ties with this godchild because Strae underestimates Zack's appreciation of her efforts. Strae has not asked because Kenna could not do so as it would go against her very nature and potentially unmake her.
Important Relationships
Solustrae - This Tuatha De Danann Lord of House Balor was exiled into the deep dreaming for questioning the Winter Queen, Mab, at the time that War with Summer began it's frenzied ascent. He contended that the fae realms would be thrown into chaos if they did not negotiate or attempt reconciliation with the Summer Queen, Tatianna. Mab's decision to exile an important Lord into realms that would drive even a Fae mad was meant to be the first message to any who questioned her authority. Soon thereafter the Winter Court began to earn the reputation that they have to this day.
Kenna relies upon Strae's wisdom and strength when she finds hers failing. Kenna may take on maternal roles and coddle her godchildren; she may even take a softer stance than what she has in her heart for the betterment of everyone, but Strae is her counterweight. He can be harsh, calculating, and didactic. Strae's advice and counsel is the only reason that Kenna has not abdicated the role of Queen.
Nelo Angilo - This ancient werewolf, once a close friend and important to the recent battle which secured freedom for many fae, and Kenna had a recent falling out over internal issues. Their friendship, once firm, now is shattered.
Unseelie or Seelie?
Kenna is neither Seelie or Unseelie. She is of the educated opinion that before the war with Summer and Winter, all fae were wild fae. Fae on both sides of the current war have been drafted into it, ensnared by oath or birthright.
Explanation:
When the Tuatha De Danann arrived in Ireland, some estimate between 4000 and 6000 years ago, modern texts suggest that they conquered the Fir Bolgs and the Fomoire, races of a similar "titan/god" bloodlines. According to Kenna who remembers the era with a vividness that one reborn into a human body would have difficult recalling, these assertions are founded on the basest form of propaganda.
The rise of the Tuatha De Danann came after a series of intermarriages, and territorial clashes that ended in the deaths of some of the most important eternal beings in their history, e.g., Balor of the Fomoire and Nuada of the Tuatha De Danann, both kings of their respective peoples.
According to Kenna, King Bres and a small group of Fomoire after an unsuccessful and historically reviled attempt to reconcile their differences under a single leadership left with a large number of the Fomoire. The few abandoned tribes did not survive further skirmishes or incorporated themselves into Tuatha De Danann society, notably the self-titled and infamous House Balor which is known to have the most blood of the Fomoire. (The link provided is an example of what Queen Kenna suggests is pure propoganda.) Like their namesake, those of House Balor have "disfigurements" or animal-like properties and transformative powers.
Around the time that the children of the original Tuatha De Danann took positions of political power a major power shift occurred. Then ruler of the Tuatha De Danann, Gwydion, demanded control of the greal of Cerredwyn, a cauldren known for having restorative properties that could heal fae from certain death and iron poisoning. The keepers of the greal were the children of the Morrigan; the goddess of war, fertility, and death, and who acted a bit like a Valkyrie, gathering the souls of the dead and bringing them back to life. Gwydion wanted control, essentially, of which fae souls would be given life again and who would be left to the fates to put into ignoble human bodies (until such time as they could chose to be true fae again, or chose to die as a human, and never live again.) A war to control the greal was waged long before Arthur and his knights were duped into looking for what they believed to be the "cup of the Christ" by fae looking to recover it. Gwydion and his scions acquired it and it is currently held in secret by Tatianna, Queen of Summer, leader of the Seelie court.
Mab, Queen of Winter and leader of the Unseelie, was among the heroes who tried to restore the greal to it's original position, in the hands of the scions of the Morrigan - the now reviled House Scathatch. (House Scatchatch's duty was to ensure that the greal was used fairly and for those fae who were deserving of resurrection, and is primarily impartial in the war of Summer and Winter.) In time, many of the winter fae learned to live in an undead state, notably the Sluagh. Many learned enchantments to ensure that they could not be killed. Mab and her Queendom changed to be the polar opposite of Tatianna. The war which has not ceased in over 800 years has caused the once heroic Winter Court to devolve into bitterness and desire for revenge.
Both Summer and Winter courts are locked into an endless war. Both sides believe that they are right.
Philosophy
In Kenna's estimation, the Dreaming is a physical manifestation of the collective-consciousness of all the Earth and it's inhabitants. She somewhat follows Jungian psychology and philosophy. She believes that the source for Arcadia (the collective of all fae realms like Annwn, Otherworld, Avalon, Olympia, Asgard, etc.) is fueled where the unconscious meets the collective-consciousness. She believes that as she helps people evolve, they enhance and strengthen the Dreaming, and clean it up a little.
Multiverse Pantheon
(Plays well with Dresdenverse, and common folklore based fae: Irish, Welsh, Greek, and Norse. Player is well versed in all. Some aspects of Changeling the Dreaming have been incorporated into Kenna's story.)
Because City of Heroes is set in a multiverse, it is entirely possible that Kenna's understanding of the fae world is different than other fae. She tries to coalition those of all backgrounds and understandings of the Dreaming and fae magic, even if they are considered evil by human standards if they uphold the Dreaming.
Typical responses to guys who come onto her too directly:
1) She takes out a 100 dollar bill and says, "My business is helping people... and right now the only help you need is something two 50 dollar whores can work out."
2) Kenna hands the guy a small bag of catnip, "Plenty of cat-girls around. Don't be worried if you find one or two of them have Mr. Winkies, they usually have Hoohas too."
3) Kenna begins humming and occasionally singing he song, "U and Ur Hand" by Pink - off key on purpose, making special emphasis on key lyrics like "I'm not here for your entertainment","We didn't get all dressed up for you to see", and "...going home alone arentcha."
